Two words to describe Gina Fairway: total sweetheart.
Fallon had woken up early the next day as she had two classes, her morning sickness was acting up so she stayed a while in the bathroom. When she finally got out, Gina was at the kitchen table, making pancakes. Fallon's stomach gave an embarrassing growl although she was determined not to have any. She slung her bag over her shoulder and headed out.
"Hey, I am leaving. Whitney would be here in the next one hour or so," Fallon told her.
Gina turned to her with a huge smile, "Hey! You are Fallon right? Do I know you from somewhere?"
Must be nice having such a huge amount of money that you can give someone half a million dollars and not remember them the next day.
"We met at the nursing home when you were volunteering. Bathroom scene?" said Fallon.
Gina's face lit up, "You are the student journalist! How cool is it that we get to meet again? Thanks for agreeing to stay last night on such short notice."
"No problem. Do you really sleepwalk?" Fallon couldn't resist asking.
Gina laughed, "Nope. I just wanted someone to stay and chat up Taylor when he woke up in the middle of the night."
Fallon's jaw dropped.
"Don't look so surprised, he annoys the hell out of me."
"Isn't he your boyfriend?"
"My boyfriend? What gave you that idea?"
"Er, I just thought..."
Gina pointed to a chair and heaped a plate with pancakes, "Sit. Seems like you need a lot of catching up. Where are you of to this early anyway?"
"School."
"Oh, don't worry about that, I will drop you. I have always wanted to have a college experience anyway. Can I attend your classes with you?"
Fallon sat down and fidgeted with her bag strap, "They are not that interesting."
"I still want to attend them. I am here for two weeks, enough to get the full experience. Don't worry, I will wear a disguise."
"Er..."
"Pretty please? Or I will be bored to death in here. Unless the jerk decides to go home earlier, I am stuck in Miami."
Fallon shrugged, "Okay. So you two are not dating?"
Gina pushed a cup of tea in her direction and sat down too, "Nope."
"Just doing the deeds?"
"With who? Taylor? Eew gross."
"But yesterday in the master, I saw you two..."
Gina blushed, "You saw me, but did you see him?"
"No. I just assumed since it is just the two of you here, it must have been him."
"It wasn't him."
"Who was it?"
Gina raised an eyebrow at her demanding tone.
Fallon blushed, "Sorry. Forgot I was just the help," she mumbled as she spread syrup on her pancakes.
"You guys sign NDAs, right? You cannot reveal anything I tell you under this roof?"
"Not just under here, within this compound. Anything we see or hear cannot be disclosed to third parties."
Gina gave a relieved sigh, "In that case, I can just tell you, at least so you stop thinking it was Taylor because, dude, gross. It was a toy."
Fallon choked on her pancake, "Toy? Life sized?"
"They do make those you know and I have one hell of a schedule, no time to linger and develop relationships."
"Oh," Fallon tried to sound as non judgement as possible.
"Do you want to see it?" Gina asked, excited.
"No!"Fallon exclaimed horrified. She didn't even want to hear about it leave alone see it.
"It's really amazing, you know. Follows instructions to tee and well endowed too. Absolutely heavenly," Gina laughed at the look on Fallon's face, "Are you a prude or something? How old are you?"
"No, I am not a prude. I just don't want to hear about it. I prefer my men sentient."
"I have still got the upper hand haven't I? Pleasure whenever I feel like it, double and triple orgasms every hour and no STIs or pregnancies or birth control hormonal imbalances."
Fallon felt like the pregnancy comment was aimed at her but she ignored it.
"A human cannot be replaced by a machine. The cuddling, the warmth, the conversations, it's just not the same."
Gina gave a little shrug, "Can't they? I mean Dylan cuddles really well and he is warm and I have never been one for great conversations."
"Obviously," said Fallon with a smile.
"Oh my God, I have made you uncomfortable, haven't I? Am so sorry. My mom says I am too open. I haven't scared you away, have I? You are still going to show me around campus, right?"
Fallon nodded, "Don't worry about it. So what are you guys if not boyfriend and girlfriend?"
Fallon didn't know why, but she found herself liking Gina more since the revelation.
"Isn't it obvious? What else could we be if not siblings?"
Fallon was now truly shocked. She tried to trace doctor Cahill's features in Gina's superstar features but found none.
"Blood siblings?"
"No need to remind me, I know he looks a million times better."
Fallon secretly agreed. Gina Fairway was not ugly, in fact, she was quite beautiful, but she was just... basic. Long brunette locks, girl next door face and non remarkable blue eyes. Of course she could be transformed into a stunning beauty in a second by those Hollywood make up artists, but at the end of the day, she had none of that otherworldly factor that could make her stand out, although her 32 million Instagram followers would strongly disagree.
"He is my brother, same mom same dad."
"But he is so..."
"Tan?" Gina helped her out, "We have some latina roots somewhere in our family tree although why they chose to manifest in him and not me, we will never know."
"Oh."
Tan was not the word Fallon had been looking for, enigmatic more like it, but she wasn't about to let Gina know that.
"So you are a Cahill in real life?"
"Yep. Even though I legally dropped Cahill when I turned sixteen. Fairway was my middle name and I just went with it, to protect the Cahills from paparazzi of course."
"But when I asked him if you two are dating, he just went with it?"
Gina laughed, "He does that all the time, he dislikes talking about himself so when a stranger asks if we are together, he would rather just say yes than explain all I have told you."
"Why are you two here though?"
"It is this volunteer thing our parents have us roped into since we were kids. Every year, we have to spend three weeks together, in any city we wish, doing volunteer work. We have been doing it since forever. Mom says it strengthens sibling bond, I say it gets on my nerves. Don't get me wrong, I like spending time with him but he is drives me crazy. Can you believe he chose to volunteer at a reproduction clinic? And stay there too. I had to go there every evening to try and convince him to come to the hotel with me, when he refused, I rented this villa and forced him to come here instead."
"Is he still upstairs?"
"Yes. He should be coming down anytime soon though he has to be at the clinic soon."
Fallon did not know what to make of Gina's information. So she had been visiting her brother at the clinic, not getting an abortion. If it was so, why pay off Fallon? Was the check even from her? From the way she was behaving, it didn't look like it. But who else would give away that much money? Nothing made sense.
As if on cue, doctor Cahill appeared on the stairs, dressed in simple black slacks and classy white shirt. Fallon's first observation was his legs, they were pure art. She stared down at her cup, too afraid to look up and meet the intense blue gaze.
"Finally, sleeping beauty grazes us with his presence," Gina said as she handed him a plate of pancakes.
He placed a hand at the back of Fallon's seat and pointedly looked at her, forcing her to meet his gaze, "Morning," he greeted her with a gentle smile.
Fallon's stomach did a back somersault, "Morning doctor," she replied going thoroughly red.
"You two get a room," Gina said playfully as she poured him tea.
He ignored her and took the seat next to Fallon, "Sleep okay?"he asked.
Fallon bobbed her head up and down.
"Let me know if you need anything, okay?"
"That's too kind doctor but really, I am good."
There eyes met and Fallon could feel his intense eyes smoldering her, burning her up and yet locking her in place, preventing her from looking away.
"Third wheeling alert," Gina said in a sing song voice.
The spell broke and Fallon blushed.
"Guess what my next volunteer activity is?" Gina asked.
He did not reply, he dug into his pancakes and ate silently.
"I am going to go to college with Fallon and attend classes with her. Isn't that exciting?"
He gave Fallon a questioning look and Fallon just shrugged.
"That is not a volunteer activity."
"What else do you want me to do? I have visited the nursing home twice and the marine conservation center thrice, I have given a huge donation to each, what else do you want me to do? I mean, who picks Miami for a whole three weeks of charity? If we could have gone to Venezuela..."
"You could have been out for photoshoots, partying and shopping every day."
"FYI I can do those things here too but I am not doing them."
"Because you are in the US and you don't want to ruin your reputation as the miss two goody shoes next door, do you? I compromised on the villa G, I am not compromising on the three weeks, find something to do."
"I have told you..."
"Going to college and disrupting Fallon's normal life is not a volunteer activity. Find something else."
"Well, my sister and her friends have this thing on campus, she could help," Fallon put in timidly.
"What thing?" Gina asked warily.
"My sister, she is a trained gymnast and competes for the school. They help young gymnasts perfect their skills at the college gym."
"And how can I help with that?"
"You are a trained dancer, aren't you?" Fallon asked. She knew Gina's bio at the back of her hand. Part of what made Gina a household name was her ability to hold her own on the dance floor. Fallon knew the actress had sixteen years of ballet training under her belt and she was really good at it.
"I suppose so," Gina said evasively.
"Well, my sister has been trying to get more kids to take interest in gymnastics but it just isn't picking up. If words goes around that Gina Fairway will be teaching ballet technique there for the next few days, the turn out could be massive."
"And the paparazzi uncontrollable," Gina said.
"Not if we get the college on board. If we have campus security watching out, they won't be able to harass you."
Gina exchanged a look with Taylor.
"Sounds like a plan," the doctor finally said, he stood, "Gotta go. You two figure it out, yeah?"
"No goodbye kiss?" Gina called out to him as he reached the door.
"Go to hell. Bye Alloy take care okay?"
Gina retained a smile on her face for a few seconds after he was gone, "Alloy?" She asked.
"Short for Fallon. Stupid high school nickname but I like it."
"How do you..."
"Get Alloy from Fallon? You don't, as I said before, stupid."
"Well, I like it too. I am just gonna go upstairs and throw on something really quick, okay? Then we will get out of here."
When Gina came downstairs, Fallon could hardly recognize her, blue eyes were replaced with hazel, the brunette locks were covered with a realistic looking dirty blonde wig which was divided dead centre and tied into a knot at the back. There was a touch of makeup but it was subtle enough not to draw too much attention. She was dressed in white jeans, black converse and a red crop jacket.
"What do you think?" Gina asked.
"It is good. You are really good at the disguise thing."
"Well, let's go."
"They got out of the villa and found Gina's bodyguard slash driver waiting for them with a normal greyish car. Fallon felt a little thrill up her spine at the fact that she was going to spend a whole day with Hollywood's biggest star, and no one will be none the wiser.